Brazilian airline Gol to pay $41 million to resolve corruption probes in US and Brazil

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes SA (GOLL4.SA) will pay more than $41 million to resolve parallel corruption investigations by criminal and civil authorities in the United States and Brazil, U.S. authorities announced Thursday.

Gol has reached a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department in connection with criminal indictments filed in Maryland accusing the company of conspiracy to violate anti-corruption laws, the department said in a statement. communicated.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement that Gol agreed to pay $70 million to settle the charges against it.

However, due to “Gol’s failure to pay the fines in full, the SEC and the (DoJ) have waived payment of all but $24.5 million and $17 million”, he added.

Gol will pay approximately $3.4 million in additional fines to Brazilian authorities, the SEC said. The airline has agreed with the Justice Department to pay more than $87 million to settle the criminal charges, the SEC added.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite, of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said Gol had “paid millions of dollars in bribes to foreign officials in Brazil in exchange for passing legislation beneficial for the airline”.

Polite added that Gol “entered into fraudulent contracts with third-party vendors to generate and conceal the funds necessary to carry out this criminal conduct, and then falsely recorded the false payments in their own books.”

Between 2012 and 2013, the company conspired to offer and pay approximately $3.8 million in bribes to foreign officials in Brazil, the Justice Department said, citing court documents.

Representatives for Gol were not immediately reachable for comment.

At the end of July, the company announced a strong net loss in the second quarter, mainly due to changes in exchange rates.

It also provided new guidance for 2022 to reflect frequent increases in jet fuel prices and pass-through effects on rates, lowering its outlook for key metrics such as EBITDA margin and load factor, but increasing its revenue forecast. Read more

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Stephen Coates

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.